Ultra Running: Guide and Tips

I don't know about you, but I find the title of this post hilarious.  Those of you who have read previous post, try to imagine some neophyte runner, desperate for information on how to effectively prepare for an ultra, reading this post.  Perhaps those few thousands of people who claim I'm deviously evil are not entirely wrong.

Dear neophyte ultra runner:  You have two choices:

1.  Do NOT read this post.  In fact, block this blog from your device.
2.  Read this post, but do the exact OPPOSITE of any suggestion contain within.

There, hopefully I won't be responsible for any more runners meeting an untimely end.

What this post is actually about, are a few anecdotal incidents and observations, which might provide some insight into the twisted reasoning of an ultra runner.  Almost perfectly parallel to my training, this post is completely erratic and is in possession of limited logic and order.  This is a little weird as in my professional life (I have been retired for 5 years now) I had to maintain more than a modicum of order, planning and logic.

What is it Like, to be an Ultra Runner?

It sucks.  Think of a perfect hobby, then tick off which of the following list are represented:

• I have been thirsty since 1975.
• I am never adequately trained for any ultra I run.
• One of the best lines in Joseph Heller's (author of Catch 22) book entitled Good as Gold:
  Before I started running, I was sore every morning.  Now I'm sore all the time.
• If I sign up for a race that is not an ultra, I feel like a failure before the race even starts.
• There are no conspiracies except my doctors, who must talk behind my back about new and different reasons why I should stop running.
• The speed at which I run an ultra is inversely proportional to the hours of training I log in the 6 weeks leading up to a race.  If this rule is applied to its logical conclusion, I perform best at ultras in which I have not run at all during the previous 6 weeks.
• Regardless of the rule above, I spend an inordinate amount of time training for a race in which I will perform miserably.
• Unlike shorter races, you do not "learn" from an ultra, aside from the fact that more things can go wrong in an ultra than can reasonably be expected.
• You need nutrition during an ultra.  The best foods are those that are the worst for you.  High on the list are pretzels, boiled potatoes dipped in salt, sugar and candy.  Canada boasts a company that sells a gel (small package of sugar) made almost entirely of maple syrup.  Go figure!

How Do I Train for an Ultra?

Think of almost everything you learned from your running coach (if you never had a running coach, or any coach at all, you will perform much better in ultra races) and do the opposite.  This is tricky, because at the start of this post, I mentioned that you should do the opposite of anything I write, yet I am now attempting to convince you that you should ignore your coach's advice, which means that...  Look!  An eagle!

Training for an ultra running race involves learning how to walk.  A typical rule-of-thumb is that you walk any hill over the top of which you can't see.  In the longer ultras (more than 80K or 50 miles), you need to train by walking at a brisk pace, typically 5 KPH or faster.  You don't want to walk too fast, as it is not possible to maintain 8 KPH for more than 20 hours.  Yes, you might be walking for 20 or more hours, so incorporating walking into your training is paramount.

Learn to run slowly.  Some ultra runners target 10 KPH, but these are typically the podium finishers in the longer races, so most of us need to run even slower!

I could spend 32.6 blogs describing how to properly hydrate, fuel and which is the best concoction of electrolytes and drugs for a given distance, but since all these parameters are different for every person, you are going to have to figure this out on your own.  Some runners never experience GI issues, while others have stomach problems at every race.  Others need to balance Advil (known by ultra runners as vitamin I) to coax the most out of their knees, ankles, hips and/or backs.

Training? I would avoid putting much emphasis on this component of ultra running.  I think it is more important to sign up for a shorter ultra (50K or 6 hours) before investing the time in training.  That way, you will quickly learn what it is like to run an ultra under-trained, which is the normal state of affairs for most ultra runners.  If you insist that I describe a reasonable training schedule for a short race (let's say 50K), you should be running for about half of your spare time.  Good luck!

As a note, I have very little or no memory, I can't remember which.  This was an advantage in my job, because it forced me to write down everything and to rely heavily on my scheduler.  This is also a significant advantage in ultra running.  I rarely recall what I did for training, hence I am usually confident going into a race.  A tangible upshot of ultra races is that what happening yesterday is not important, so missing a training day has no impact.

Tips That Will Help You During an Ultra Race

Don't wear your glasses during trail races.  With glasses, you will see clearly and the technical terrain will freak you out.  By not wearing my glasses, I run much faster and my finishing time is better.  There is some correlation between the bruises I have the morning after a race and not wearing my glasses, but I don't remember it, so let's move on.

There is a certain angle at which (this is different for everyone) it is more efficient to walk up a hill than to run it.  Keep in mind that running a hill, if you are over your max VO2, means you are building up lactic acid, which will slow you during and after the hill.  Walking gives you some recovery, which is handy.  Walking hills also gives you a logical point at which to hydrate or fuel.  I try to time my hydration and gel breaks during ascents.

Going into a race, fix in your mind a virtual energy gauge.  This gauge is (hopefully) at 100% when you start, but gradually descends as you progress through the race.  The rate of descent on the energy gauge is low during downhill sections and faster during uphill sections.  If you turn up the speed to pass a runner ahead of you, the gauge registers this.  I.e. you only have so many "bursts" or can run up only so many hills, before the gauge starts registering in the "unhealthy" range.  Once familiar with it, this gauge can tell you when you are about to hit the wall, or when you should adopt a death march over a marathon shuffle.

One of the most difficult aspects to grasp of ultra running, is that nutrition plays such an important role.  I allude to this in the above paragraph, as nutrition heavily impacts the energy gauge.  It is difficult to ingest more than 200 - 300 calories per hour while running.  Shovelling in 1,000 calories in 38.2 minute is easy while sitting in a restaurant, but quite tricky while running over a mountain.  Running (for someone my weight - no, please don't ask) expends between 500 and 1,000 calories per hour.  Do you see the problem?  You are at a net loss of 300 to 800 calories an hour during a race.  These are supplied from the body's reserves.  Please see the latest technical papers on how stored fat is converted to glycol by the liver, blah blah blah.  This holds no interest to a runner who suddenly goes glycol deficient.  The symptoms are usually revealed as charming items such as a death march or if you are lucky, hallucinations.  Gels can help to alleviate the worst, so carrying a few extra is worth it.  But the best approach is to fully understand your body and how much you can push it, before meltdown begins.  This is quite easy to figure out, but takes time - usually 3 or 4 decades.

Run your own race.  I often notice the 25K podium runners going at it all in a pack.  That means that one person is setting the pace and the others (in the very small pack) are tagging along.  The same happens in a marathon, with the elite.  This is not such a great idea in an ultra, because if you attempt to run at someone else's pace, you are setting yourself up for considerable misery.  During the ebb and flow of an ultra, your body hits good spots and low spots.  These are typically influenced by your fuel, hydration and drug schedules, which will differ from someone else's timing.  I rarely run a race with another person.  Don't get me wrong, I run with other people - this can help to pass the time, especially when running with people I know.  But I rarely plan to run the entire race with another person, because you must then travel at the slowest pace of the highs and lows of two people.  Or suffer a lot more.

Embrace the experience.  This is a shoddy way of saying "deal with it", but has some merit.  The only constant in an ultra is that you will have low spots.  These bad times are part of the experience and are instrumental in helping you to devise or alter your ultra training and race plans.  As another runner once put it, if ultras were easy, everyone would do it.  You run ultras to explore your limits.  It is never comfortable near a limit!